Assistant Professor - Interior Architecture and Design in Digital and Analogue Making

Role Title

Assistant Professor – Interior Architecture & Design:
Digital and Analogue Making

Grade 7, £37,694 - £47,389 per annum

Full‑time (35 hrs per week) Open‑ended

33 days annual leave, plus 9 building‑closed days for all full‑time staff. Use our total rewards calculator:  to see the value of benefits provided by Heriot‑Watt University.

The Creative Environments team at the School of Textiles and Design is a dynamic and interdisciplinary group at the forefront of spatial design innovation. We bring together expertise in architecture, architectural technology, interior architecture, retail design, product and furniture design, digital design technologies, and human‑centred design to explore how built and virtual environments shape human experience and behaviour.

We are committed to advancing both theoretical understanding and practical applications in architecture, interior architecture and design through cutting‑edge research and scholarship, including material experimentation, digital and analogue fabrication, circular design practice, and emerging construction technologies. The team fosters collaborative partnerships with industry leaders, engages in impactful community projects, and maintains strong connections with international research networks, leading particularly in generative AI, sustainable design and circular economy applications in the AEC industry.

Our work spans residential and commercial interiors to healthcare environments and educational spaces, always with a focus on creating environments that enhance human wellbeing and sustainable design practices.

The team delivers the BA in Interior Architecture and Design and the MA in Interior Architecture and Design across our Scottish Borders and Dubai campuses.

We welcome applications for one position at Assistant Professor (Grade
7) level to join the Creative Environments team. This permanent position is based at our Scottish Borders campus in Galashiels but collaboration with our Dubai team is expected and actively encouraged. Reporting to the Global Head of Creative Environments, this is a senior appointment that combines research leadership, design studio teaching, and programme management responsibility.

The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in design and making — spanning digital fabrication, analogue craft, material intelligence, and the space where these practices converge — and a strong commitment to integrating hands‑on making culture into contemporary interior architecture education. In addition to an active scholarly agenda and a strong presence in the teaching studio, the post holder will be expected to take on, or grow into, the role of Programme Director for the BA Interior Architecture and Design.

A defining feature of this appointment is the opportunity to help establish and shape the School’s new Makers’ Lab on the Scottish Borders campus — a physical research and making environment that the incoming postholder will play a central role in developing, equipping, and connecting to the team's design research agenda. This is a rare chance to build something from the ground up, and candidates with a clear vision for how a University making facility can drive both pedagogical innovation and research impact are particularly encouraged to apply.

• Serve as, or develop into, Programme Director for the BA Interior Architecture and Design, providing strategic and day‑to‑day academic leadership for the programme across both campuses.
• Oversee programme quality, student experience, and curriculum development in collaboration with the Global Head of Creative Environments and colleagues in Dubai.
• Manage programme administration, including timetabling, assessment management, external examiner liaison, and annual programme review.
• Act as a point of contact for students, supporting their academic progress and wellbeing in coordination with the University’s student support services.
• Lead on the development of programme partnerships and collaborations — with industry, maker communities, and…